The silver fox system is one of the easier Level 1 systems used in card counting during blackjack games. This system is also a balanced one, which is great for beginners and novice card counters. This balanced system means that you can start your count at zero when the deck is freshly shuffled and then the count will also be 0 after the entire deck has been dealt out.

The silver fox count system is virtually identical to the Green Fountain Count system, at least in terms of the indexes and distribution of point values to what card has been dealt. Also, this system was made popular in the book called "The Silver Fox Blackjack System" written and published by Ralph Stricker. Stricker has a reputation for training other counters and being a gentleman.

The table of indexes is shown below. Notice that the only values used here are (-1,0,+1) or just three numbers. This is one of the easy single-level or level-one types of strategies used because the numbers are in a range between +-1. The list on the left shows the value of card while the list on the right shows which count value corresponds to that value of card.

Card Value

Points

2

+1

3

+1

4

+1

5

+1

6

+1

7

+1

8

0

9

-1

10

-1

J

-1

Q

-1

K

-1

A

-1

The instructions for counting are easy. First you need to make a mental count in your head starting at 0. Then when a card is dealt, you add the numbers that correlate to the cards shown in the table into your mental count. For example, if two Queens are dealt onto the table, your total running count would be -2. Now you need to look and keep track of every card that falls on the table in order to keep an accurate silver fox card count.

Another great benefit of this system is the fact that you do not need to be aware of the card suits. This strategy also has an extremely high 96% betting correlation and a decent efficiency. It is ace-reckoned and has compromise indexes, which greatly increases the ease of this system even more. Overall, this is a fairly nice one to use and it's very easy to learn.

Recall that with all card counting, when the count is high and positive, you should make larger bets. When the count is low and negative, then it is best to make small bets or even the minimum bets to reduce your losses. When there are more large valued cards such as tens and aces, this will improve your probability odds and your advantage edge more than that of the house. You will have a better chance at beating the casino this way.

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